Review – Stand by A.L. Jackson

Have you ever wondered if each day of our lives is purposed? If every step we take is exactly where we’re supposed to be?

Have you ever read a story or series that means more than you can ever pen into words? It’s almost as if fate had a hand in matching you to the perfect story…YOUR perfect story or series. It’s as if those words are meant for you. Every feel from every word…YOURS.

You don’t have to look hard to see the beauty that bleeds into A.L. Jackson’s words, so wondrous…so WOW. Every word that this author writes is FULL OF FEELS. Every word is mesmerizing and meaningful. Every word means everything. Every word is EVERYTHING. Stand is the newest roller coaster of a rock star romance from A.L. Jackson’s Bleeding Stars series that is PURE BEAUTY IN WORDS. Stand shatters and SINGS to the SOUL, making the heart both soar and bleed.

STAND.

I don’t know if I can stand right now, my body wrecked, my soul shattered, and my emotions wrung dry from a story that was both the ultimate heartbreak and the ultimate happiness. This book BROKE ME in the BEST WAY!!! Stand was both my sunshine and storm.

Knowing it’s the final Bleeding Stars story left standing made me want to savor every word slowly.

Knowing that this last Bleeding Stars story would be a soldier ready to battle with my heart, I willed myself to stay strong while reading…I FAILED as my feelings wholeheartedly took over.

Knowing that Stand is the last Bleeding Stars story left standing had me teary-eyed before I even began.

I tried my hardest to savor each word but I devoured them like a hungry lion. These words were the predator and my emotions were the prey. The Prologue GRIPPED and GUTTED ME, my heart gripping every carefully-penned word. So powerful. So poignant. So EVERYTHING.

STAND.

I would try to stand or stay strong so I could swallow this soul-searing story…word to word…heart to soul.

Eyes, already teary from mourning this last Bleeding Stars book, bled with more tears that gushed like a rainstorm. Zee’s story BROKE ME from the Prologue alone. I was on edge where I would remain, my emotions entangled around these words, willing the tears to flow.

I could feel the world splintering around me, my foundation crumbling beneath my feet. Opening to reveal my wrong. It tosses me headfirst into a bottomless chasm. Endless. Purgatory.

After the Prologue, I had to stop reading. I had to catch my breath and reign myself for what would be a battle of emotions. Like the rest of the series, Stand made my heart bleed, breaking it in the best way. I was powerless to stop this emotional wreckage, this story wielding its power over me, but this was a wreck I wanted because I knew I would FEEL EVERYTHING.

Zachary ‘Zee’ Kennedy. Quiet and sweet Zee, Mr. Mystery, it’s finally time for your story. Oh Drummer Boy, big, beautiful, bronze-eyed, and inked Zee. Hidden under that quiet demeanor is a damaged heart, a broken boy I wanted to save. A man who has paid what he believes to be his penance for too long. A man who has never wanted to fight…until her.

Alexis Kensington. Beautiful, blonde, blue-eyed, and petite crosses paths with Zee, perhaps by fate. He becomes her savior but she saves him too. Two broken souls shoved together at the right time. Two beautiful hearts that need to stand.

“Sometimes it gets old, living in the shadows.”

“Is that what you feel? Like you’re invisible?”

“Because you’re the only thing I see.”

These words, both tender and tear-filled, struck my soul. Happy fused with heartbreaking tears flowed fast and furiously. These words…so much MORE.

“You make me remember.”

“What did you forget?”

“You make me remember what it’s like to feel.”

“And you’ve made me feel that way for the very first time.”

Oh Zee! His and Alexis’ words made me swoon so very hard! I LOVED THIS MAN of many layers but with a heart of gold that penetrated those layers the hardest…penetrating my heart too.

A connection, so big as if it beckoned from above, blazes between Alexis and Zee. An aura of fire, fueled by fate, dances around them. Lighting them up. Lifting them out of the darkness…lifting me out of the darkness…if only for a little while.

His mouth crashed against mine. Devouring. Destroying. Demanding. Taking everything I had to offer.

One kiss with passion and power in spades. One kiss that I felt penetrate through me too. One kiss that meant so much more.

STAND.

I wanted to stand, stay in this moment, soak up these powerful and poignant words, soak up this sun and slay the storms cast over this couple. Zee and Alexis’ connection and chemistry were combustible, a force of fate. I could not help but smile a grin filled with hope as I was sucked into a wave of passion, one of soulmates, one of love powerful as those flames that ignite between them. I felt every burn…every blaze…every beautiful and brilliant word…I FELT IT ALL.

“I want to fall. I want to feel it. I want to see stars. Float with them and fall with them.”

“I can feel it. Can you?”

There is so much beauty in these words, as if sent from above, where I saw these beautiful stars in the sky while reading.

“Fight for me.”

STAND.

It’s time for Zee to fight. Fight for Alexis. Fight for him. Fight for his life. Stand for love. Stand for LIFE.

When you read a story that cuts through you like a knife, gripping you, gutting you, rendering you raw…bare…breathless, you can’t help but feel every word as if each were a slice to your heart and a song to your soul.

STAND.

This story stood all over me, stomping over my heart and sending my soul soaring and shattering. I CRIED the WHOLE TIME READING, tears etched into my eyes, soul forever imprinted by this STORY that SLAYED ME. I didn’t expect Zee’s story to storm on me, shattering me the hardest, but that severe storm was worth surviving to see the sunshine and the stars. Starshine that was heaven.

No author makes me unequivocally feel every word I’m reading like A.L. Jackson. No words are a trifecta of power, passion, and poignance like hers. A.L. Jackson writes from the heart and you can tell her heart is poured into every beautiful and brilliant word. Her heartfelt writing hit my heart hard like a hurricane in every single story of this Bleeding Stars series. EVERY WORD MATTERS. Meaningful. Mesmerizing. Magnificent.

Stand sang to my soul in a beautifully broken book that bled stars into my eyes, an epic love story worth the whole constellation that will always hold my heart. Sunder started with Baz in a A Stone in the Sea, a storm of emotions that like the second book in this duet, left me Drowning to Breathe.

What I was most anxious for was Baz’s little brother, Austin’s story, my favorite second-chance type of romance, which became my favorite Bleeding Stars book and was well worth the Wait.

Stay struck me by surprise, my emotions entangled so deeply that I wanted nothing more than to stay in Ash’s story.

Stand, the last Sunder story about the mysterious and sweet Zee, stood tall on its own, a story of sun and storms that was the most bittersweet as it’s where the Bleeding Stars shine for the final time.

I got lost in Sunder. In the music. In the connection that was so clear in the four of them…So wild I couldn’t tell if it was my spirit or my feet that had been truly swept away.

STAND.

I’m standing tall and proud, giving the biggest applause to Sunder, a band in a book that is so raw and real to me. This Sunder family and their music, these devastatingly beautiful books, OWN MY HEART FOR LIFE. There has never been a series that has meant more than this one. Sunder has been my life for years, so unequivocally entangled around every part of me, and I’m sad that it’s time to say: The End. The finality of this soul-shattering series strikes a chord of sadness through me. My heart is still in harmony with the BEST SERIES EVER, these devastatingly beautiful books, the Bleeding Stars. My soul will forever sing to Sunder.

These bad, bad boys meant something to these people. They had created something no one else could. Had a chemistry that could only be found in their bond. This mixed up, mismatched family.

Curtains down. Exit stage. The Sunder show is over for good.

I am seriously mourning the end of the Bleeding Hearts books, this ALL-STAR series, one that has now risen to my TOP SERIES of ALL TIME. How can it not with words that make me feel the whole time reading?!? Bleeding Stars should be renamed Bleeding Hearts because, with every book, my heart bled harder. My heart will forever bleed and beat for the Bleeding Stars, sank in Sunder. My soul will always sing to and soar with this soul-slaying series. Sunder, this beautiful band, a family that became my family, I FEEL YOU…now and forever.